What We Know About the Trump Oval Office Prayer Dispute

Two Catholic bishops who prayed with Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Oct. 22 say they regret taking part after the White House posted video and photos of the moment on social media less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, according to The Guardian.

Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee and Bishop William Joensen of Des Moines were among 12 bishops who met with administration officials last Thursday. Both issued separate statements of regret over the weekend after images of the gathering, captioned by the White House as Catholic archbishops and bishops praying with the president, spread online.

What happened at the Oval Office meeting?

According to the Guardian's reporting, 12 Catholic bishops met with Trump administration officials on Oct. 22. The gathering ended with the group bowing their heads in prayer with Trump in the Oval Office. The White House account @MargoMartin47 posted a photo of the scene on X, and the administration circulated additional video of the moment. The post framed the bishops as praying with the president roughly a week and a half before the Nov. 3 midterms.

Why are Grob and Joensen apologizing?

Archbishop Grob titled his statement "A Public Apology." He wrote that he felt "a heavy sadness" over the pain the images caused, saying he had heard from people alarmed that he had unwittingly joined what looked like a political event on the eve of a national vote. Grob said others were hurt by the toll of Trump's policies on their own families. "We should never have been put in that position by the White House," he wrote, adding that he had reservations beforehand and "wish I had heeded them."

Bishop Joensen's statement struck a similar note but went further on policy. He wrote that "many things tied to this present Administration" were "blatantly at odds with our Catholic faith." Joensen said none of the bishops was unaware the meeting fell close to an election, but insisted none intended the moment as an endorsement of a party or candidate. "I wish I had been more shrewd and less simple, like those who exploited our meeting for partisan political purposes," he wrote.

Who arranged the meeting, and why does that matter?

Grob said the Heritage Foundation — the conservative think tank behind the Project 2025 blueprint for the second Trump administration — arranged the sit-down. The bishops, Grob said, were told beforehand that it would be a private discussion, reportedly centered on immigration policy. That framing is central to the bishops' complaint: they describe agreeing to a closed-door conversation, not a photo opportunity timed to the campaign calendar.

Do the bishops agree on everything?

Not entirely. Grob's statement focuses on the optics of the meeting and his regret at being placed in that position. Joensen's statement goes further, directly criticizing Trump administration policy as inconsistent with Catholic teaching. Both bishops agree the White House's social media rollout turned a private moment into something that looked like a campaign endorsement, but they describe the underlying grievance somewhat differently — one centered on process, the other on substance.

By the numbers

• 12 Catholic bishops met with administration officials on Oct. 22, 2026.
• 2 of those bishops — Grob and Joensen — have since issued public statements of regret.
• Nov. 3, 2026 is the date of the midterm elections the meeting preceded.

What happens next?

Neither bishop has called for the White House to remove the posted images, based on the statements reported by the Guardian. The dispute instead centers on accountability for how the meeting was framed publicly, and on whether other bishops among the 12 who attended will issue their own statements.

What to watch

• Whether any of the other 10 bishops who attended the meeting issue similar statements of regret or defend the White House's framing.
• Whether the White House or Heritage Foundation responds publicly to Grob's and Joensen's characterizations of how the meeting was arranged.
• Whether the episode becomes a talking point in the final days of midterm campaigning, given its timing relative to the Nov. 3 vote.
• Whether the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issues any collective statement addressing the use of the images.

The full statements from Grob and Joensen, along with the White House's original social media posts, are detailed in the Guardian's report.

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